All In Your Head - Hilton Valentine

Released 19/10/09. Possibly the Great Lost Acid Casualty album, All In Your Head was recorded in California in 1969 by former Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine, whose heavy reliance on LSD throughout the latter half of the 1960s had contributed significantly to his former band's summer-of- 66 demise.

A beguiling blend of winsome, Donovan-esque psychedelic folk and chamber pop arrangements, sadly the album failed to find an audience, largely due to the record company deciding not to promote it after falling out with the Animals management. Now gaining a first-ever release outside of North America, All In Your Head is revealed to be a mesmerising period piece, its wide-eyed paeans to Mother Nature, flower-child nursery rhymes and overwhelming peace n love ethos capturing the era as accurately as many more celebrated albums.

This long-overdue release is taken from the original master tapes, and features rare photos and a new essay (including numerous quotes from Hilton) on this little-known masterpiece.

Listen / Everything Returns To Me / It's all In Your Head / Little Soldiers / Eyes Of A Child / Sitting In The Sun / Is There Anything But Love / Land Of Children / Run, Run, Run / Peace / Girl From Allemagne

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Miracle Mirror

The Golden Ear-rings (name change to the singular Golden Earring in 1969) were pioneers - Holland's first home-grown beat-era stars: before The Motions, before Q65, before The Outsiders. Their first single hit the charts in April 1965 and began a career which still thrives today. Before the international smash Radar Love in 1974 the band had scored an unbroken run of Dutch hit singles during the 60's. Unlike most bands of the era, The Golden Ear-rings wrote their own material - they only ever recorded a single cover version.The reissue of their first three albums - 1965's Just Earrings, 1967's Winter Harvest and 1968's Miracle Mirror - reveals that The Golden Ear-rings were amazingly assured, years before the international recognition. Bonus tracks from singles complete these reissues, making The Golden Ear-rings' entire recorded works available for the first time They were Holland's secret - but not anymore.Their music combined the toughness of The Small Faces and the minor-key brooding melodies of The Zombies. They sounded like no one else, always melodic, always focused, always immediate. 1968's Miracle Mirror took on a psychedelic influence to create an album that stands alongside song-based classics like Odyssey And Oracle, Ogden's Nutgone Flake and The Hollies' Butterfly.

Upon its release in 1966, Men from the Ministry received heavy promotion on pirate radio. Disc jockey Kevin McKew was particularly fond of the record and played it five times through on his show, declaring the album 'the breakthrough record of 1966.' Because McKew had a 2:00 AM slot his promotion did little to help sales. Inspection of the back cover of the LP reveals that the disc jockey had a vested interest in the record; he had written the sleeve note. We present it here as it appeared on the album:

Two voices

Three writers

Four musicians

Robin, Micky

John, Clem

Four men

Breaking new ground

The Ministry of Rock?

The Ministry of Soul?

No! They are The Ministry of Sound!

By early 1968, when Midsummer Nights Dreaming was released, the music scene was quite different than in 1966. Album packaging was more elaborate, dresses were shorter and bands played a new style of music inspired by the growing underground scene. With this in mind, the second and last Ministry of Sound LP featured a gatefold sleeve that, when opened, revealed an elaborate fairytale written by Irish surrealist Brian O'Brien. O'Brien cleverly wove Ministry of Sound song titles and lyrics through the story. An artist called 'Jester' (an apparent reference to the then popular group of artists and Beatle confidants The Fool) did the accompanying artwork.

Both LPs featured the cream of Southern Music studios house team , John Carter,Robin Shaw,Micky Keen,Clem Cattini,Russ Alquist, and are released on CD for the first time . Each with bonus tracks they make a stunning 2CD set.

As psychedelic
as it was atmospheric, On The Greek Side
Of My Mind is essential to The Aphrodite’s Chid jigsaw. And essential for
any fan of Roussos.

Before Greece’s
progressive rock legends Aphrodite’s Child bowed out in 1972 with the double
concept album 666, their singer Demis
Roussos had already made his own, solo, concept album, 1971’s On The Greek Side Of My Mind.

He became an
international star in 1973 with "Forever
And Ever”, but the unsung On The
Greek Side Of My Mind was where his solo career began.

Made with
Aphrodite’s Child lyricist Boris Bergman and French musicians as well as
Aphrodite’s Child drummer Lucas Sideras, On
The Greek Side Of My Mind is the missing link between the band and his solo
success - even though it was made while Aphrodite’s Child were still going.

On The Greek Side Of My Mind is a dramatic exploration of his roots, the
legends of his home country and the journey he was on, weaving the themes of
Greek folk into a rich orchestrated progressive pop that transports with its
rich imagery.